Empathetic Prayer

It is every traveler's nightmare. You see a baby/toddler getting on the plane. You hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Sure enough, barely up in the air and the baby starts screaming. I am not talking about light screaming either. I am talking about gasps of air of silence to get the full effect and then blood curdling screaming.  You know what I am talking about. Thankfully it was a short flight (Boston to Cleveland), but the baby was screaming virtually the entire flight.

Initially, I put my head phones on trying to tune it out. But this was so loud that it could not drown it out. Then I went through a phase where I thought "what is wrong with these parents - can't they calm that kid down?".  How quickly I forget as the parent of three children that the best of us can be completely helpless when this type of screaming starts. Then I turned to my young co-worker and asked him if he was sure he wanted children.

Then something amazing happened. The Holy Spirit said to me as clear as a bell - "Why don't you pray for that family?". This may have seemed like a trivial thing to pray for. Doesn't God have bigger crises to deal with than this screaming baby on a closed fuselage somewhere over the northeast?  Apparently not. I call this empathetic praying - supplication that happens in everyday circumstances. So I prayed and prayed hard - like it was a life or death matter. I asked God to calm this child and give her parents a break (the rest of us needed the break too so it wasn't totally selfless). I prayed hard - kid still screaming. I prayed again. The child stopped abruptly. Now I am not saying that my prayer had anything to do with it. That is the mystery of prayer. God is completely in control but He wants us to pray as if it depends on us. We get to enjoy participating in this mystery of life in the seen world.

I learned something from this as well. I have asked God to show me people from His lens. Empathetic praying - being aware of others. A friend asks for prayer - I shouldn't slough it off. I pass an accident on the road already being taken care of. It looks bad but God says pray for that family. I sat next to a girl on another flight on her way to her fiancee's funeral who was tragically killed in a car accident. She is carrying his child.

This is something that can be learned and developed as the Christian man matures. I am nowhere near where I would believe God wants me, but I am thankful He has showed me my warts and turned it into the practice of empathy.

Watching Prayer's Results

In the morning, O Lord, Thou wilt hear my voice

In the morning, I will order my prayer to Thee and eagerly watch.

Psalm 5:3 

I really struggle with prayer. I have been pondering Psalm 5. First off, David is in a struggle. He cries for help. And then I look up at the Psalm superscript and it is a to the choir director to flute accompaniment. Isn't a flute kind of a happy instrument? When I am in a struggle, I want to be by myself and give myself a real pity party.

The turning point is verse 3. It is a new morning, a resurrection morning. God does not expect nothing from me. When I pray, it is a hodgepodge of mess. My mind wanders and events weigh heavy on me. But even in my weakness, God takes my prayers, messy as they are and makes them right. Romans 8:26 - the Spirit helps our weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  God take my messy prayers and even makes them right on the way up. Even in my prayer, it is all dependent on God and nothing on me. Yet not my will but yours God is one of the hardest prayers we can make and one our Lord Jesus struggled with.

Why even pray then? Because we are not idle participants. We are active participants. I can't rationalize that. God is perfectly in control, yet He wants us to pray. Further, Psalm 5:3 says we should wait in eager anticipation for what He is going to do. I am a planner and want God to tell me what He is going to do in my life next week, next month, and next year. But He wants me to see what He is going to do DAILY and to do so expectantly. 

Finally, we must be in perfect trust that God knows what is best for us. I have a friend who wants to grow closer to God, but he is deeply afraid that God will harm him. As he says, he has a good life now and does not want to screw it up. Come on, what father would screw up his kids lives to draw attention to himself? God knows perfectly what is best for us. There are many times I have found myself playing on the freeway of life. It felt good at the time however. The traffic was fast and there was exhilaration.  But the car was going too fast and was bound to go out of control. God put a flat and car trouble in my life. The car was idled for my own good. But I want that car back sometimes. As a result, the things that matter are deepened, which almost always is relationships.